Gabriel Gray
Gabriel Gray, also known as Sylar, is a character on NBC's Heroes. He first appears in the third episode of the first season. He is portrayed by Zachary Quinto. History Powers Current Powers *'Intuitive Aptitude:' Sylar's innate ability is the power to determine exactly how things work. Sylar used this innate ability to discover how to take the abilities of other evolved humans. He determined that Chandra Suresh was correct that the abilities are based in the brain, and several of Sylar's victims have had their skulls opened and brains removed. By studying his victims' brains he is able to determine how their powers work and replicate those abilities himself. Arthur revealed to Sylar that he can obtain the abilities of other people without killing them through empathy. Arthur left Sylar in a room with Elle, with whom he had a long talk, after which Sylar manifested her ability. It is unknown whether this manifestation was related to empathic mimicry or just a different method of using intuitive aptitude to understand an ability. With this ability comes a 'hunger' for more knowledge and power. Sylar believes that it is this hunger that drives him to murder others and steal their powers. Twice he has been able to suppress this hunger. In one one future he battled to keep his hunger in check for the sake of his son, while in another he had acquired enough abilities to the point where he was comfortable eradicating every other evolved human (and thus, destroying every other ability) on the planet. While he was infected, he attempted to take an ability from Candice Wilmer, but he was unable to use it. After he cured himself of the virus he was once again able to use his innate ability in addition to the ability he had acquired from Brian Davis, which he retained due to his guilt over killing Brian. He was not, however, able to use the other abilities he acquired before his infection. *'Telekinesis:' Sylar has demonstrated far more advanced telekinetic abilities than Brian. He can exert enough telekinetic force to flip a truck through the air or tear sheet metal, and he has enough control to cut off the top of a person's skull to expose the brain. Sylar has repeatedly been shown using telekinesis to shield himself from bullets, as well as to augment his own physical strength. Sylar is able to use this power with relatively little concentration. Sylar typically uses hand gestures in conjunction with telekinetic feats, although he can use this ability without them. Presumably they somehow help him to direct the power. He was able to incapacitate an opponent when he was unable to move, although it seemed to take intense concentration to do so. Sylar can simultaneously manipulate dozens of objects at once, having been shown to use swarms of locker doors, , glass bottles, and glass shards as projectile weapons. Nonetheless, when he was holding Knox and Jesse with this power, he seemed unable to restrain a third enemy, Flint, suggesting that he may have trouble incapacitating more than two opponents at a time, possibly due his hands being used to help him direct his power. Sylar has also shown that he can levitate himself telekinetically to an extent. He high-jumped through an opening in the ceiling to escape Matt and Audrey. He also propelled himself from a crashing truck into a tree and sneaked up on Dale Smither and Claire Bennet without making any footsteps. Sylar has also demonstrated the ability to control people's bodies telekinetically, forcing them to move like puppets, in a similar manner to Eric Doyle's puppet master ability. *'Rapid Cellular Regeneration:' Taken from Claire Bennet . *'Chrysopoeia:' Taken from Bob Bishop . Utilizing control nearly equal to Bob's, Sylar was able to turn a gun to pure gold in a matter of seconds, only minutes after acquiring this ability. *'Sound Manipulation:' Taken from Jesse Murphy . Sylar has shown that he can disintegrate all of the flesh and clothing off of a body at a fairly close range. *'Electrokinesis:' After his talk with Elle, Sylar manifests her ability. Unlike with his other abilities, Sylar doesn't have an immediate mastery over this ability, prompting Elle to coach him, after which he is able to aim and shoot properly. Sylar has demonstrated he can fire a continuous stream of lightning, or unleash short bursts. He can also fire a small spark from his finger to shatter objects He also has enough reflexive control of the ability to take on several soldiers at once and strike them all down in a matter of seconds. He was able to power up one in each hand while battling Nathan and Peter and used this ability a lot in the battle given the amount of electricity seen flying around. After being made to believe he's Nathan, Sylar accesses this ability. *'Lie Detection:' Sylar states the user feels a tingling sensation when told a lie; he found this out shortly after killing Sue, when he asked a man on the elevator if there was any problem, to which the man said no (Sylar was covered in blood at the time). He is also able to detect a lie from Arthur Petrelli, realizing that Arthur was not his father. Sylar has also used this ability while questioning Agent Daniel Simmons. Sylar was questioning him about his father and was able to detect a lie when Agent Daniel Simmons said he was in prison. Sylar used this ability while questioning Luke about where his father is. *'Clairsentience:' Sylar was able to see at least some of Claire's history by touching her. He experienced the pain he inflicted on her by attacking her. While Sylar was confronted by Nathan, Sylar told Nathan he knew everything about his life and told him that Angela helped him get an ability that allows him to see the history of an object he touches. He held up a jacket that Nathan wore when he "betrayed everyone." While disguised as Nathan, he is able to see that Claire and Nathan spent some time together in Mexico by touching her necklace. He was also able to identify Liam Samuels by shaking his hand. Sylar implies that he can use this power to absorb all of a person's memories, but only if they are conscious. He is unable to absorb Nathan's full set of memories because he was still unconscious from Danko's taser darts, so instead he absorbs bits and pieces of Nathan's life story from the objects around his office. Apparently he likely got most of it as he was able to be turned into Nathan with Nathan's memories and this power could apparently fill in the gaps by providing him with information that he didn't have through objects he would touch. This was shown in Acceptance when Sylar touched a toy plane. This caused him to "remember" playing with it as a kid, but it also made Sylar suspicious. In fact, one of the memories of Nathan's that Sylar saw was one that was erased by the Haitian. That's because Sylar didn't "see" the memory in Nathan's brain, but he saw the memory that was "stored" in Nathan's baseball cap and in the diving board at the Houstons' home. Later, when Sylar (as Nathan) touched the real Nathan's body, he was shown the real Nathan's death and Matt Parkman turning Sylar into Nathan. *'Shape-Shifting:' Sylar acquired this ability from Martin, first using it to impersonate a female agent collecting evidence at the scene of Martin's death. Sylar is able to transform more quickly than Martin, completing the change from the female agent's form to his natural form in just a few seconds (although the transformation is still noticeably painful). Within days of acquiring this power, Sylar demonstrates the ability to rapidly change form in only a second, with no visible discomfort. Over the course of the episode he assumes the forms of Emile Danko, Sandra Bennet, and a Black Ops agent. Sylar was able to both regenerate and use telekinesis while in another form. Sylar can impersonate someone from "remote" contact; he impersonated Nathan Petrelli after touching trace DNA found on Nathan's toothbrush. Sylar also shows that he can change his clothes as he shape-shifts. If attempting to mimic another person who is shape-shifted, Sylar experiences feedback of an unknown nature on contact and is unable to acquire a DNA sample. Sylar can use this ability to alter his internal anatomy; he used it to move the "sweet spot" in his brain, reducing his chances of dying from brain penetration. He also accidentally gave himself an extra tooth. At one point, Sylar had two consciousnesses in his brain. He would shape shift into the form of the person who was "in control" at the time. When Sylar regained control of his body, he returned to his own form, but when Nathan's mind started fighting him as he tried to kill Angela, he ended up shape shifting back into Nathan. Sylar later uses this to pose as Nurse Hammer to throw Peter off guard. He isn't blocked by Peter's new ability, but Peter may not have been blocking him in order to catch him by surprise later, which he successfully does. *'Imprinting:' Taken from Joe Macon *'Disintegration:' Taken from Tom Miller *'Flight:' Sylar empathically stole this ability from Nathan before killing him. After flinging Nathan through a hotel room window, Sylar flew himself down to the balcony. A couple of months later after Sylar turned back into Nathan, he accessed this ability and flew to Peter's apartment. Later, as Sylar, he uses the ability to fly to the carnival and then later hover outside of Claire's dorm room and watch her. Sylar presumably uses this power to get from Matt's house in Los Angeles to the Carnival in Central Park, where at some point Peter replicated this power from him again. *'Empathy:' Sylar manifests this ability after an intimate encounter with Lydia. Like her, he seems to be able to gather basic information about a person's wants and desires through touch. He later uses this to understand Claire without having to cut her head open. Sylar proceeds to kiss Claire, noting that he found Lydia's use of the ability on him hyper-erotic. He also is able to create tattoos on his skin, although he had some trouble at first. Sylar uses this ability immediately after absorbing it by seeing through Lydia's façade and realizing that she simply wants to manipulate him. Later, after demanding Samuel to inject him with ink, he forms a tattoo of Claire Bennet on his arm, indicating that he did not truly want to be at the carnival. He seems to have some trouble creating a tattoo at first however, and was only able to make it lie still after Samuel told him not to try to control it. Former Powers *'Cryokinesis:' James Walker was found frozen solid, mid-bite. Sylar managed to coat a large stretch of highway with ice in seconds and Sylar froze Hiro's sword to the point of shattering. These events indicate that he can rapidly freeze a human body or cause hundreds of cubic feet of ice to form from ambient moisture in seconds or decrease the temperature of metal to the point of breaking. Unfortunatly, he lost the ability to the Shanti Virus. *'Eidetic Memory:' In an alternate timeline, Sylar possessed this ability due to killing Charlie Andrews. As a result, Sylar was able to read the owner's manual for a tractor-trailer and immediately use that knowledge to drive the vehicle. He lost the power when Hiro changed the past, preventing him from gaining this power. *'Liquefaction:' It was taken from Zane Taylor Sylar was able to completely liquefy a toaster and Dale Smither's wrench. It was lost to the Shanti virus. *'Superhuman Hearing:' Sylar experienced some difficulty controlling the power after first obtaining it. He was sensitive to loud noises, such as a car door being slammed, which produced flinches and enough pain to make him groan. Mohinder was able to use this sensitivity against Sylar and torture him with a tuning fork. Currently, Sylar seems to display mastery over the ability. He was able to eavesdrop from across Kirby Plaza, as well as detect Hiro's beating heart from several meters away and later recognize it. . He also claimed to be able to hear a pin drop from a mile away. It was lost to the Shanti virus. *'Precognition:' It was taken from Isaac Mendez It is unknown if painting is the only way for Sylar to manifest this ability, as Sylar was shown receiving quick flashes of the future after killing Isaac in his loft. Sylar lost this ability to the Shanti virus and didn't gain it back once he was cured. It was lost to the Shanti virus. *'Radiation Manipulation:' After taking this ability from Ted , Sylar stands on the roof of a building, conjuring up radiation on command. Sylar has never been seen emitting radiation unintentionally, and conjured plumes of smoke shortly after acquiring the ability, whereas Ted took an extended period of time to do the same. Sylar lost this ability to the Shanti Virus. *'Illusion:' the ability to create images in people's minds, taken from Candice Wilmer. Sylar was never actually able to use this ability due to the effects of the the Shanti virus. Appearances References Category:Evolved Humans Category:Heroes Characters Category:Season One Characters Category:Season Two Characters Category:Season Three Characters Category:Season Four Characters